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Chapter Eleven – January 19

“I can’t wait to see Brooke,” Liv said as she watched me zip up a duffel bag. Liv’s blood pressure was back to normal and she was slowly getting up and moving around more and more each day.

“She’s been an incredibly good girl, but I know she’s missed you,” I said with a smile. I turned my head as the door opened. Dr. Tresher poked her head in, smiling.

“Ready to go home?” she asked. Liv nodded.

“I am, but I’m torn. I can’t wait to see Brooklyn but I don’t want to leave Noah here by himself.” Liv’s voice cracked. I felt the same way she did.

“Well, I have a special treat for you before you go home,” Dr. Tresher said. She disappeared; when she came back she was wheeling in a bassinet. Liv gasped.

“Someone graduated from the incubator about a half hour ago,” Dr. Tresher announced. She placed the bassinet right beside Liv.

“I thought I’d give you guys a little time to visit. If he keeps this up he’s going to be going home in two days.”

“Really?” I said. Liv was already picking him up; the smile on her face was contagious.

“He’s about an ounce away from hitting five and a half pounds. Other than that I just want to make sure his bilirubin levels don’t go back up. But right now you couldn’t ask for a pinker baby.”

“That’s great news,” I said. Dr. Tresher nodded.

“You two visit. If you have any questions I’ll answer them when I come back in for him. In fact, we got a bottle of your milk ready. I bet he’d like mommy to feed him.”

Dr. Tresher headed out of the room and I sank down next to Liv. Noah was swaddled up in a light blue blanket; he wore a matching cap on his little head. He wasn’t wearing the little “fly guy” shades anymore; his eyes squinted against the light. I laughed as I watched his face; he was a little bundle of facial expressions.

“Can you hand me the bottle?” Liv asked. I picked it up and handed it to her. Liv took the bottle and eased it gently into Noah’s mouth. There was no doubt about his sucking reflex; he ate eagerly, even greedily.

“He looks perfect,” I said. “Just like his mommy.”

Liv looked over at me. I kissed her softly.

“Thank you,” she whispered. I laughed softly.

“For what? The kiss?”

Her eyes filled with tears. Oh crap.

“For loving me so much.”

I pressed my forehead to hers. “That’s a given.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Be careful. Your mom made up the guest room.”

“I want to sleep in my own room,” Liv complained.

“You can’t do stairs,” I reminded her. “It’s okay. I’ll be down here with you.”

Liv’s mom trailed right behind us all the way to the guest room. Liv settled herself on the bed.

“What can I get you pumpkin?” mom asked her. Liv looked around.

“Brooke.”

“I’ll get her,” I offered. I headed out of the bedroom and up to the nursery.

Angel was sitting cross-legged on the floor building a gigantic block tower. Brooke kept handing her blocks. I watched her eyes cross as they traveled up to the very top of the tower.

“Are you two behaving in here?” I asked from the doorway.

Angel looked up, her face broke into a huge grin. “Is she home?”

“Nope, we’re not really here. We’re testing out our virtual reality machine. How’s it working?”

Angel stuck out her tongue. “Nick…”

Brooke squealed and chucked the block she was holding onto the floor. “DADA!”

I unhooked the baby gate and walked in. Brooke met me half way, her little hands slapping the floor as hard and as fast as her little arms could propel her. I scooped her up and covered her face in kisses.

“Your mommy wants to see you,” I said. She clapped her hands and puckered her lips. I gave her another kiss and headed down the stairs, Angel at my heels.

“How’s Noah?”

I smiled. “He’s out of the incubator and is the pinkest little guy you could ever hope to see. If you want, you can come with me when I go see him tonight.”

“I’d love that,” Angel said. “Um…we might have another visitor too.”

“What? Who?”

“Mom.”

I stopped on the bottom step and looked behind me. I had called mom hours after Noah was born and I had to leave a message. She hadn’t called me back in all this time.

“Mom?”

“She wants to see Noah. She was going to come here but I told her he’s still not out of the hospital yet.”

I sighed. “What did you tell her?”

Angel smiled. “I told her you would call her.”

Much to the delight of Brooke, I hopped off the bottom step and hopped all the way down the hall. Her little pigtails bounced in the air. I was positive that Liv could hear that little laugh all the way down the hall. Sure enough, by the time I walked into the room, Liv already had her arms out.

“MAMA!” Brooke squealed.

“Oh, Brooke,” Liv said as I handed her over. Just like me, she covered her face in kisses. Instead of whining or pulling away, Brooke puckered up again.

We’re a very kissy family.

“You look good Liv,” Angel said. Liv looked up and smiled.

“Thank you for helping mom with Brooke.”

“That was no problem. I’m going to miss the little jumping bean. How are you feeling?”

Liv leaned back into the blankets and sat Brooke down beside her. Brooke smacked the fluffy pillow and leaned back too. I laughed.

“I’m tired and I feel worthless,” Liv said.

“You’re not worthless. Enjoy some bed rest while you can. Plus, you still have to pump,” I said. I made squeezing motions with my hands.

Liv made the ‘whoop-de-doo’ sign. “It’s pretty sad that my boobs don’t hurt as much as the rest of my body.”

Angel settled down on the end of the bed.

“Can I see your incision?”

Now, you might not know this but my sister is not only gorgeous but she’s also the weirdest person I know…besides me.

“Angel, that’s disgusting.”

“What? It’s not disgusting.”

“It’s fine, Nick.”

I turned away as Liv lowered her pajama pants to show the long incision that stretched from left to right across her abdomen. It’s not that I have a super weak stomach but the sight of such an incision on the woman I love made me a pansy.

“Wow. I always thought it went the other way. Like open heart surgery.”

“It’s my battle wound.”

“It looks like it hurts. A lot.”

I was intently staring at a painting on the wall. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liv’s mom come in the room loaded down with a tray of food. She blanched.

“Oh my god. It’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

“Do you need help cleaning it?”

Only my sister would sound remotely excited about helping to clean an incision. I swear if she didn’t get paid so much money to smile at a camera than she should have been a doctor.

“No, they sent home a kit. It’s better if I do it. It’s…it’s painful.”

“Are you going to throw up bro?”

I turned around just as Liv pulled the pants back up over the incision. Mom was still standing there with the tray looking like she would never eat again. I felt the same way.

“I am not going to throw up,” I said.

“Well, I made food. Everyone dig in.”

Liv and Angel grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich and dug in. Brooke reached up for Liv’s sandwich, doing her little caveman grunt. I glanced at my watch.

“Lunchtime for you too Brookey,” I said. I scooped her up. Liv looked at me.

“I’ll bring her back afterwards.”

“Can you bring some of her board books?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

As I walked to the kitchen I tickled Brooke’s stomach.

“Lunch and story time. Do you realize what a lucky girl you are?”

Brooke nodded. I slid her into her high chair and began to sing softly as I prepared her lunch.

We had given up on the gross grocery store baby food. Besides apple sauce, Brooke devoured any fruit like it was going out of style. In the short amount of time I had actually been at home in the past few weeks, I noticed that she had also taken a liking to grains. I made some macaroni and cheese shells and sliced up some grapes. She went to the grapes first.

“Mmmmmmm,” she said happily. She picked up another grape and handed it to me. Leaning down I took it, nibbling her fingers. She shrieked and laughed.

By the time Brooke was done with lunch, she was wearing more of the cheese sauce around her face than what got into her stomach. She gave out an irritated cry of protest as I wet a washcloth and wiped her face and hands.

“All done baby girl,” I said, tossing the cloth back into the sink. I scooped Brooke out of her chair and grabbed a couple book from the living room. I walked back into the bedroom. The food had been devoured from the tray. Liv looked over at me as we walked back in.

“It’s story time, I said, setting Brooke back down on the bed. I handed Liv the books.

“Thanks babe,” she said. Liv’s mom sat down on the other side of Brooke as Liv decided which story to start off with.

Since everything was going well, I figured that it was time to go back to spend some time with Noah.

“Angel, do you want to go with me to the hospital?”

Liv looked up. She didn’t have to say anything; I already knew she was wishing she could just hop in the car and go with me.

“Sure. I’ll be back to paint those toenails Liv.”

Livvy smiled. “Thanks, I’ll entertain myself until then.”

I walked over to the bedside and kissed Liv softly. She touched my face, her eyes searching mine.

“Give him a kiss for me, okay?” she said. I nodded.

“Absolutely. Just a couple more days,” I reminded her. It seemed to help. Her hand fell from my face and she turned her attention back to Brooke.

As we headed to the car, Angel touched my arm.

“Nick, are you going to call mom?”

Deep down I was half-hoping she would forget. Instead I disarmed the car and pulled out my cell phone. She answered on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Hi, mom. It’s Nick. Angel said you called.”

“I want to see my grandson.”

“Angel and I are headed over to the hospital right now. Why don’t you meet us there?"

“I can be there in a half hour.”

“We’ll wait for you.”

“Okay. See you then.”

“Okay. Bye.”

I hung up and tossed my phone on the little stick mat on my dash.

“She coming?”

I nodded. “She is. But Angel I swear if she starts anything…”

“Nick, you know mom doesn’t think before she speaks.”

I pursed my lips and shrugged.

Even though I knew that, it didn’t mean I had to like it.

---------------------------------------------------------

“Noah? Why did you choose Noah?”

“It means peaceful. And we liked it,” I said. The awesome nurses at the NICU had given us a room. I was currently sitting on the bed changing a very messy diaper.

“Well at least you didn’t use Robert.”

Angel gave me a look. I chewed the skin on the inside of my mouth. It was hard to do while trying not to breathe through my nose.

Mom touched Noah’s hand. He was screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Aren’t you going to have him circumcised?”

“Well if all goes according to plan, they’re going to do it the morning we take him home,” I said. I swaddled him back up and the crying stopped. Who knew I’d be able to expertly swaddle a baby?

Not me, that’s for sure.

“Well, I hope I’ll be allowed to come visit my grandchildren again.”

I looked up at mom. She was blinking rapidly. It was her technique to produce tears.

“I never forbid you to visit,” I said. My patience was waning.

“You kicked me out of your house,” mom reminded me.

“I don’t want to go into the reason why,” I said pointedly.

“Mom do you want to hold Noah?” Angel asked. Mom was a sucker for diversion tactics. This time was no exception.

“Of course I do,” she said. Angel gave me a look and I held Noah out even though the kid in me was secretly screaming ‘No he’s mine!’

Mom held him and went over to the rocker. I watched hawk-like as she settled down in the seat with him.

“You were this small Angel,” mom said. Angel smiled.

“Aaron was just a little bit bigger,” mom added. “Such perfect babies. Now Nick. Nick was my problem child.”

I threw my hands up in the air. Angel quickly yanked them down.

Luckily, we all managed to get through the visit without another Carter World War erupted. As I surrendered Noah into the arms of a NICU nurse, I headed down the elevator with Angel and mom.

“I’d like to see Brooklyn,” mom said. “Soon.”

“I know Liv’s not up to a lot of visitors right now,” I explained. “But I’ll call you within the next couple weeks.”

Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Well isn’t Angel staying at the house? And her mom?”

“We just needed some helping hands while we were both staying at the hospital. Plus, her mom lives closer.”

I didn’t want to add that Liv’s mom was also fairly sane and got along with me.

“Well, you need to remember that your children have two grandmothers. I raised five children without a problem. You could learn a little something from me.”

I opened my mouth but Angel jabbed me in the stomach.

“It was good to see you mom,” she said. “Nick will call you soon.”

Angel hugged mom and then mom and I shared an awkward little back slap. It was so hard to believe that she was the same woman who had kissed the scrapes on my knee. I gave her a perfunctorily kiss on the cheek.

And just like that she was gone. My whole body relaxed as her car drove out of sight.

“How’d I do?” I asked Angel as we got back in the car. She gave me a sideways glance.

“Truthfully? I’d give you a C+. Your mouth and temper get you into too much trouble, bro.”

I sighed. A C+?

Well, I never was a good student.